Agreement Between Internal Astigmatism and Posterior Corneal Astigmatism in Pseudophakic Eyes

To directly measure internal astigmatism and evaluate its agreement with posterior corneal astigmatism in pseudophakic eyes.

This prospective study enrolled 32 eyes of 32 patients (18 women, 56.3%) who underwent phacoemulsification with implantation of a non-toric monofocal intraocular lens (IOL). Two months postoperatively, posterior corneal astigmatism was measured using a Pentacam Scheimpflug analyzer (Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH, Wetzlar, Germany). Manifest refractive astigmatism was measured after fitting a spherical hard contact lens. This refractive astigmatism that was vertexed to the corneal plane was considered internal astigmatism. The magnitudes of internal and posterior corneal astigmatism were compared. The relationship and agreement between these two astigmatisms were investigated using the Spearman correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plots, respectively.

The mean patient age was 56.3 ± 9.6 years. IOL decentration or tilt and posterior segment abnormalities were not encountered in any cases postoperatively. The mean refractive astigmatism measured before fitting the hard contact lens was -0.81 ± 0.56 diopters (D). Internal astigmatism (-0.17 ± 0.21 D) was significantly different from posterior corneal astigmatism (-0.30 ± 0.15 D; P = .046). Regression analysis demonstrated a weak association between internal astigmatism and posterior corneal astigmatism (r² = 0.22, P = .013). Bland-Altman plots produced 95% limits of agreement for these two astigmatisms from -0.49 to 0.75 D.

A significant but weak correlation was found between the magnitudes of internal astigmatism and posterior corneal astigmatism in the pseudophakic eyes. This result indicates that Pentacam measurement of the posterior cornea did not compare well with a "gold standard" of refraction-derived values. [J Refract Surg. 2018;34(6):379-386.].